The objective of the EU-PLF project is to deliver a validated Blueprint for an animal and farm-centric approach to innovative livestock farming in Europe proven through extensive field studies. This blueprint represents a manual for farmers and their surrounding industry including high tech SME’s and other stakeholders. It is a reference tool offering pragmatic guidance on how Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) systems can be applied to farm level in order to create value for the farmer and other stakeholders. EU-PLF is based on the PLF concept that represents the continuously automated measurements directly on the animal or in its environment. Beyond the use of the PLF data (body movements or sounds, etc.) for monitoring and management, the data can be translated into key indicators on animal welfare, animal health, productivity and environmental impact. Highly experienced European teams from different disciplines with a proven track record in animal and PLF-related fields - animal scientists, veterinarians, ethologists, bio-engineers, engineers, social scientists and economists, leading industrial market players in the livestock industry and high tech SME’s – have joined to deliver a useful PLF Blueprint. Most of the academic partners are leading previous research projects funded by the EU in animal and PLF related fields.
To ensure that the Blueprint assists the European livestock industry beyond the duration of the project, 50 SME’s or potential starters will be identified all over Europe to play a key role in the EU-PLF project. With a competition for SME’s and starters, the best ideas get funding to design a PLF-prototype with their high tech innovative solutions. In collaboration with a leading industrial PLF-partner, they use the Blueprint to bring their prototype to farm level. This allows developing business models and linking high tech SME’s to European industry players to create new PLF-products with global impact.
To ensure that the Blueprint assists the European livestock industry beyond the duration of the project, 50 SME’s or potential starters will be identified all over Europe to play a key role in the EU-PLF project. With a competition for SME’s and starters, the best ideas get funding to design a PLF-prototype with their high tech innovative solutions. In collaboration with a leading industrial PLF-partner, they use the Blueprint to bring their prototype to farm level. This allows developing business models and linking high tech SME’s to European industry players to create new PLF-products with global impact.